It’s perhaps fitting that Lydia Ko is playing in an LPGA Tour event called the MEDIHEAL Championship this week, writes Nick Rodger.
The title sponsors specialise in soothing potions, products, and paraphernalia that apparently help to give your skin a healthy glow. Ko turned 21 the other day but, in a golfing sense at least, she has lost the youthful vigour that no amount of face cream can revitalise.
Having spent 85 weeks as the world No.1, Ko, who is without a win since the summer of 2016, has slipped to 16th on the global pecking order while a variety of hirings, firings, feuds and finger-waggings have done little for her stability both on and off the course.
In the last few days, Ko’s former coach, David Leadbetter, has emerged fighting on social media to deny the somewhat absurd allegation that he had changed her swing to promote a coaching book he was writing. Leadbetter, who helped guide Ko to huge success, put the blame for her decline down to the meddling of her father whom Leadbetter described as a “non-accomplished golfer”. Busybody parents sticking their oar in? Now, that’s certainly not a first.
With 19 worldwide wins, including two major titles, the rise of Ko, who was winning pro events as a 14-year-old amateur, made her a true phenomenon, not just in golf but in the wider world of sport in general.
As far as Leadbetter was concerned, the writing was on the wall when he was given his marching orders a couple of years ago.
“She had a very busy schedule in 2016 and she was physically and mentally exhausted, a classic symptom of burnout,” said Leadbetter, who maintains that Ko would still be part of his team if decisions were down to her alone.
“Lydia can certainly win more tournaments, even majors, but there’s no possible way that she can play better than she played for those first three years.”
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